A1 Journal article (refereed)
Doping liquid argon with xenon in ProtoDUNE Single-Phase : effects on scintillation light (2024)


The DUNE collaboration. (2024). Doping liquid argon with xenon in ProtoDUNE Single-Phase : effects on scintillation light. Journal of Instrumentation, 19(8), Article P08005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/19/08/P08005


JYU authors or editors


Publication details

All authors or editorsThe DUNE collaboration

Journal or seriesJournal of Instrumentation

eISSN1748-0221

Publication year2024

Publication date01/08/2024

Volume19

Issue number8

Article numberP08005

PublisherIOP Publishing

Publication countryUnited Kingdom

Publication languageEnglish

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/19/08/P08005

Publication open accessOpenly available

Publication channel open accessPartially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX)https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/99956

Publication is parallel published https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2402.01568


Abstract

Doping of liquid argon TPCs (LArTPCs) with a small concentration of xenon is a technique for light-shifting and facilitates the detection of the liquid argon scintillation light. In this paper, we present the results of the first doping test ever performed in a kiloton-scale LArTPC. From February to May 2020, we carried out this special run in the single-phase DUNE Far Detector prototype (ProtoDUNE-SP) at CERN, featuring 720 t of total liquid argon mass with 410 t of fiducial mass. A 5.4 ppm nitrogen contamination was present during the xenon doping campaign. The goal of the run was to measure the light and charge response of the detector to the addition of xenon, up to a concentration of 18.8 ppm. The main purpose was to test the possibility for reduction of non-uniformities in light collection, caused by deployment of photon detectors only within the anode planes. Light collection was analysed as a function of the xenon concentration, by using the pre-existing photon detection system (PDS) of ProtoDUNE-SP and an additional smaller set-up installed specifically for this run. In this paper we first summarize our current understanding of the argon-xenon energy transfer process and the impact of the presence of nitrogen in argon with and without xenon dopant. We then describe the key elements of ProtoDUNE-SP and the injection method deployed. Two dedicated photon detectors were able to collect the light produced by xenon and the total light. The ratio of these components was measured to be about 0.65 as 18.8 ppm of xenon were injected. We performed studies of the collection efficiency as a function of the distance between tracks and light detectors, demonstrating enhanced uniformity of response for the anode-mounted PDS. We also show that xenon doping can substantially recover light losses due to contamination of the liquid argon by nitrogen.


Keywordsneutrinosparticle physics

Free keywordsneutrino detectors; noble liquid detectors (scintillation, ionization, double-phase); photon detectors for UV; visible and IR photons (solid-state) (PIN diodes, APDs, Si-PMTs, G-APDs, CCDs, EBCCDs, EMCCDsCMOS imagers, etc)


Contributing organizations


Ministry reportingYes

VIRTA submission year2024

Preliminary JUFO rating1


Last updated on 2025-08-02 at 20:26